Module:TableTools

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This module includes a number of functions for dealing with Lua tables. It is a meta-module, meant to be called from other Lua modules, and should not be called directly from #invoke.

Loading the module

To use any of the functions, first you must load the module.

local TableTools = require('Module:TableTools')

isPositiveInteger

TableTools.isPositiveInteger(value)

Returns true if value is a positive integer, and false if not. Although it doesn't operate on tables, it is included here as it is useful for determining whether a given table key is in the array part or the hash part of a table.

isNan

TableTools.isNan(value)

Returns true if value is a NaN value, and false if not. Although it doesn't operate on tables, it is included here as it is useful for determining whether a value can be a valid table key. (Lua will generate an error if a NaN value is used as a table key.)

shallowClone

TableTools.shallowClone(t)

Returns a clone of a table. The value returned is a new table, but all subtables and functions are shared. Metamethods are respected, but the returned table will have no metatable of its own. If you want to make a new table with no shared subtables and with metatables transferred, you can use mw.clone instead.

removeDuplicates

TableTools.removeDuplicates(t)

Removes duplicate values from an array. This function is only designed to work with standard arrays: keys that are not positive integers are ignored, as are all values after the first nil value. (For arrays containing nil values, you can use compressSparseArray first.) The function tries to preserve the order of the array: the earliest non-unique value is kept, and all subsequent duplicate values are removed. For example, for the table {5, 4, 4, 3, 4, 2, 2, 1} removeDuplicates will return {5, 4, 3, 2, 1}

numKeys

TableTools.numKeys(t)

Takes a table t and returns an array containing the numbers of any positive integer keys that have non-nil values, sorted in numerical order. For example, for the table {'foo', nil, 'bar', 'baz', a = 'b'}, numKeys will return {1, 3, 4}.

affixNums

TableTools.affixNums(t, prefix, suffix)

Takes a table t and returns an array containing the numbers of keys with the optional prefix prefix and the optional suffix suffix. For example, for the table {a1 = 'foo', a3 = 'bar', a6 = 'baz'} and the prefix 'a', affixNums will return {1, 3, 6}. All characters in prefix and suffix are interpreted literally.

numData

TableTools.numData(t, compress)

Given a table with keys like "foo1", "bar1", "foo2", and "baz2", returns a table of subtables in the format { [1] = {foo = 'text', bar = 'text'}, [2] = {foo = 'text', baz = 'text'} }. Keys that don't end with an integer are stored in a subtable named "other". The compress option compresses the table so that it can be iterated over with ipairs.

compressSparseArray

TableTools.compressSparseArray(t)

Takes an array t with one or more nil values, and removes the nil values while preserving the order, so that the array can be safely traversed with ipairs. Any keys that are not positive integers are removed. For example, for the table {1, nil, foo = 'bar', 3, 2}, compressSparseArray will return {1, 3, 2}.

sparseIpairs

TableTools.sparseIpairs(t)

This is an iterator function for traversing a sparse array t. It is similar to ipairs, but will continue to iterate until the highest numerical key, whereas ipairs may stop after the first nil value. Any keys that are not positive integers are ignored.

Usually sparseIpairs is used in a generic for loop.

for i, v in TableTools.sparseIpairs(t) do
   -- code block
end

Note that sparseIpairs uses the pairs function in its implementation. Although some table keys appear to be ignored, all table keys are accessed when it is run.

size

TableTools.size(t)

Finds the size of a key/value pair table. For example, for the table {foo = 'foo', bar = 'bar'}, size will return 2. The function will also work on arrays, but for arrays it is more efficient to use the # operator. Note that to find the table size, this function uses the pairs function to iterate through all of the table keys.

The above documentation is transcluded from Module:TableTools/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this module’s sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Please add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this module.

-- This module includes a number of functions that can be useful when dealing with Lua tables.

local p = {}

-- Define often-used variables and functions.
local floor = math.floor
local infinity = math.huge

--[[
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- isPositiveInteger
--
-- This function returns true if the given number is a positive integer, and false
-- if not. Although it doesn't operate on tables, it is included here as it is
-- useful for determining whether a given table key is in the array part or the
-- hash part of the table.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--]]
function p.isPositiveInteger(num)
	if type(num) == 'number' and num >= 1 and floor(num) == num and num < infinity then
		return true
	else
		return false
	end
end

--[[
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- getNumKeys
--
-- This takes a table and returns an array containing the numbers of any numerical
-- keys that have non-nil values, sorted in numerical order.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--]]
function p.getNumKeys(t)
	local isPositiveInteger = p.isPositiveInteger
	local nums = {}
	for k, v in pairs(t) do
		if isPositiveInteger(k) then
			nums[#nums + 1] = k
		end
	end
	table.sort(nums)
	return nums
end

--[[
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- compressSparseArray
--
-- This takes an array with one or more nil values, and removes the nil values
-- while preserving the order, so that the array can be safely traversed with
-- ipairs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--]]
function p.compressSparseArray(t)
	local ret = {}
	local nums = p.getNumKeys(t)
	table.sort(nums)
	for _, num in ipairs(nums) do
		ret[#ret + 1] = t[num]
	end
	return ret
end

--[[
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- sparseIpairs
--
-- This is an iterator for sparse arrays. It can be used like ipairs, but can
-- handle nil values.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--]]
-- function p.sparseIpairs(t)
--	local nums = p.getNumKeys(t)

return p